Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Working on technique
If you do something often enough it becomes familiar, no matter how 'strange' or awkward it may be at first. I'm talking specifically about playing an instrument such as my violin, but any instrument will provide a similar situation and it also applies to sport where technique plays an important part in the performance.
It's a truism that muscles 'memorise' patterns of tension in relation to one another when an activity is rehearsed or practiced; muscle memory will ensure that we can do the 'same again' when required. Unfortunately this applies to bad technique as well as good and also to good/bad postural habits. We learn technique, good and bad to an equal degree; whatever the experience we have, what we 'do' becomes more ingrained with every time we do it ~ no exceptions. Repetition reinforces and establishes whatever we do. So if we are learning a technique in running, tennis, golf, violin playing or piano or dance or any other thing that requires a high degree of muscle control, balance and fine co-ordination it makes a great deal of sense for us to copy the example of the best performance we can witness. Choose a suitable expert to copy; choose the best in the world. We learn by copying; our children show us that, just as we learnt in a similar way from our parents. We pick up their good qualities and bad ones in equal measure.
If you've been following my blog for a few months you will have seen that I went 'back to basics' on the violin in late spring to work on some specifics such as poise, freedom of movement and balance, while also developing my abilities with vibrato. Several months later I can now report that my abilities with my chosen instrument have come on really well and I am very pleased. I am particularly pleased when my violin teacher commented after I'd been playing a piece of music during our last lesson (having returned to playing music after a gap of 4 months to work on basics) that he'd rarely heard anyone come on so much in such a short space of time. :-)
My progress with the violin during this time was not down to practicing a particular piece of music over and over again; I did not play any music for 4 months. My progress has come by not playing music and turning my whole attention to the subtleties of poise, balance, freedom of movement etc. In effect I have improved my technique better than I could have by carrying on along the same road as I was on before. If I had carried on playing the way I had been, I would have developed a bit, but also developed the unhelpful aspects of my faulty technique, as 'practice makes perfect'. We perfect our bad habits as well as our good ones. But by stopping and working on basics we can put our whole attention on the fundamentals that will govern every performance we ultimately give. So having not practiced any piece of music for four months, I now play them better than ever before because of my improving technique. I'm not saying I'm perfect(!!), far from it; but I'm better now than I was as result of this approach to learning.
Having had some success with my work on basics of poise and vibrato I have now decided to focus on my bowing (while also keeping the other things going too...). The right arm that holds the bow has a most important role in the production and quality of tone and overall playing. I have heard that Leopold Auer (who taught virtuosos such as Jascha Heifetz and Mischa Elman in the early 20th century) recommended even advanced students to play open strings for 30 minutes a day for 6 months. Only that way will they have a chance of being top performers. Well I've no intention of trying to be a concert performer, but I do want to play as well as I can. And although I won't necessarily give exactly 30 minutes a day to playing unfingered open strings for six months, I'm going to give it a go, because I believe in the principle. It takes work and dedication. To quote such teaching authorities as Aaron Rosand, natural talent accounts for about 5%, the rest is hard work. Being without the necessary talent and not having the benefit of youth, I can still apply myself to the work, and this I shall do. I'll keep you posted....
Working on basics brings huge rewards.
